Oakland

Construction on Van Ness Raises Concern for San Francisco Residents

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency will make another critical change to the Van Ness Corridor Friday that will make it impossible to make left turns on Hayes Street.

The change comes in the hopes of reducing pedestrian injuries but residents worry it will cause even more traffic on the busy street.

"It’s already clogged up in all hours of the day," said Oakland resident Cece Carpio.

She is not looking forward to the change as she’s watched construction for the Van Ness Improvement Project.

"We’re going to be putting a red lane in the center and boarding in the center for people trying to ride public transit the 47 and the 49 were anticipating a time savings up to 32 percent," said Erica Kato, SFMTA Deputy Spokesperson. "Removing that specific turn actually allows us to retime the traffic signals to improve the flow of traffic on Van Ness."

Signs advising drivers of the changes and reminding them that more changes are on the way are already up.

"We do warn people to allow themselves extra time beginning July 12, actually we're going to shift construction southward so on Van Ness between McAllister and Mission," said Kato. "Hopefully it will be worth it."

SFMTA says parking control officers will be out directing traffic and they will have engineers monitoring how it’s going.

Construction is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

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